TLDR: Dr. Dieter Fox, a distinguished professor at the University of Washington and former head of Nvidia’s Seattle robotics research lab, has joined the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Ai2) to lead a groundbreaking new robotics initiative. This move aims to advance foundation models for robotics, leveraging Ai2’s expertise in language, vision, and embodied reasoning.
Seattle, WA – Dr. Dieter Fox, a prominent figure in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence, has announced his departure from Nvidia to take on a pivotal role at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Ai2). Effective July 10, 2025, Fox will lead a new robotics initiative at the non-profit research institute, focusing on the development of foundation models for robotics. He will also maintain his professorship at the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering.
Fox, who joined the University of Washington faculty in 2000 and heads the UW Robotics and State Estimation Lab (RSE-Lab), brings a wealth of experience to Ai2. In 2017, he was instrumental in establishing and leading Nvidia’s Seattle robotics research lab after a meeting with CEO Jensen Huang at the CVPR conference. Under his leadership, Nvidia Robotics evolved from a nascent research effort into a significant force in both industrial and humanoid robotics, as noted by Fox in a LinkedIn post.
At Ai2, Fox’s new mandate is to build a dedicated robotics team. ‘I’ll be building a robotics team focused on foundation models for robotics — drawing on AI2’s strengths in language, vision, and embodied reasoning,’ Fox stated on LinkedIn. The initiative’s initial efforts will concentrate on creating advanced simulation environments. An Ai2 spokesperson confirmed via email to GeekWire that these environments will be crucial for ‘exploring model architectures and data types required to enable robots to operate across diverse real-world settings.’ Furthermore, these ‘environments, benchmarks, and datasets will be openly shared with the research community to support rigorous, reproducible investigation into robot foundation models.’
Ai2, founded in 2014 by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has strong academic ties to the University of Washington, with several UW faculty members also serving as research leaders at the institute. This existing synergy is expected to facilitate Fox’s new endeavors.
Also Read:
- Google DeepMind Unveils Gemini Robotics On-Device: Empowering Robots with Local AI Capabilities
- Amazon Sets New Record for University of Washington Computer Science Graduate Hires
Fox also indicated that the new team is actively seeking to hire ‘exceptional researchers, engineers, and interns with backgrounds in vision-language models; simulation and planning; and large-scale training for reasoning and control.’ Prior to his tenure at Nvidia, Fox also briefly directed an Intel research lab in Seattle while concurrently working at the University of Washington, further solidifying his extensive background in leading cutting-edge research in the Pacific Northwest.
